


Undersink

by Sephypsycologist



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, more will be added as people show up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 21:45:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17088317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephypsycologist/pseuds/Sephypsycologist
Summary: Rachel escaped from a life of pain into...this?





	Undersink

Under cover of night, Rachel ran.

Her backpack bounced painfully on her back, heavy from supplies and her most precious possessions, but she wasn’t going to stop.

She was finally getting away from her father, and his drunken yelling and terrifying threats. From sitting up till 4 in the morning waiting for his gun to go off in the bedroom. From the pain and fear of living in his house. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t find work, and it wasn’t her fault that her mother had died of listeria. Now….now she was on her own.

She saved coins for years, hiding the jars under her bed. When one of her three jars got full, she’d go to the coin counter at the local Big Box and put the cash at the bottom to be buried as it was filled again. Her father had never found her stash of cash, thank stars, so she’d had plenty to buy the parcel of useless woodlands out in the forest. At 24, she was old enough to buy land. It was dirt cheap, too, sold on auction by the bank in the next down over. It was so far out that no one wanted it, so she’d been the only real bidder.

Soon enough, they were deep in the forest and pulled out their map. Using a flashlight on their keychain (which was one of those stretchy curly things, so it worked as a bracelet), they followed the trail they’d marked with on the map with their light. They could make it to the land before ten if they hurried.

The woods were scary, at night, but they’d walked this trail often enough since they’d planned their escape. Soon, they reached the run-down shack on the edge of a clearing. A hunting shack maybe, or some kind of getaway.

But now it was home.

Rachel sighed in relief as they finally finished setting up camp in the dilapidated living room. Her tent was a simple pup tent, a one-person green triangle that had enough room for her, her old red sleeping bag, and nothing else. The dust was cloying, but at least it meant no one had been here. She’d checked the whole first floor and seen nothing but the tiny prints of what had to be little animals. That was one of the first things she’d fix, of course, but for tonight they could do what they wanted.

Now that the tent was up to keep the spiders, rats, or whatever else off of her, Rachel slid inside and zipped it shut. “Ah….free at last,” she sighed, snuggling into the well worn flannel of her sleeping bag. She was alone, with no one there to yell at her or barge into her room, or tell her how disappointed he was in her.

She fell asleep with tears in her eyes and curled into a ball.

“But, Undyne, what if they need help?”

“Quite, Papyrus! There’s no telling what they’ll do if they find us!”

“But you are the one who is yelling?”

Rachel snaps awake as she hears the voices. They’re so close and clearly talking about her.

“Papyrus, please!” a rough female voice.

The other voice, a nasally, young male, replied, “ALRIGHT, UNDYNE. BUT WE SHOULD AT LEAST TELL THE KING WHAT WE HAVE FOUND.” There was a small clink noise, “AND I WILL VOLUNTEER TO WATCH THE HUMAN!”

Undyne, whoever she was, sighed, “Fine. Just…don’t go any closer. I’ll go tell the king.”

King? What sort of weird….dream? reality? Rachel wasn’t sure anymore.

There was a clanking noise, as if someone had walked away in armor, and then a shifting. The zipper of Rachel’s tent was knocked on softly, “HUMAN, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME OUT, NOW IS THE TIME. I PROMISE TO BE AS COURTEOUS AS POSSIBLE.”

What was she supposed to do? Maybe…maybe this was a dream. She’d had dreams of waking up before. Yeah. So she unzipped her tent and looked out.

There was no one when she first looked around, but…then she looked down. On the floor was a six inch skeleton in white, red, and blue. He clapped his red gloves together, “YOU ARE VERY BRAVE TO FACE ME. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM ONE OF THE MOST TRUSTED SCOUTS OF THE ROYAL GUARD! AND YOU, HUMAN? WHAT BRINGS YOU SO CLOSE TO OUR KINGDOM?”

Rachel blinked, pinched herself, then blinked again. No, this was no dream. “Um…I own…the land now?”

“THE NEW OWNER!? OH THIS IS…THIS IS AMAZING!” Papyrus jumped up in the air and seemed very excited, “EVER SINCE MR. CARROWAY WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL, THINGS HAVE BEEN FALLING APART! WE’VE BEEN LEFT FOR FIVE YEARS! THE ELECTRICITY STOPPED WORKING AND THE WATER! YOU CAN HELP US, HUMAN! OH…” He stopped in his rambling and tilted his head, “MIGHT I KNOW YOUR NAME, NEW OWNER HUMAN? I HAVE INTRODUCED MYSELF BUT NOT GIVEN YOU THE SAME COURTESY.”

A little overwhelmed by the realization that tiny skeletons were a real thing, Rachel replied numbly, “I…I’m Rachel. Um…Papyrus, just….just how many tiny skeletons are there in here?”

“OH!” He sat cross legged on the floor, his tiny bones clicking as he moved, “THERE ARE ONLY THREE. MYSELF, MY BROTHER, SANS, AND OUR FATHER, WHO IS CURRENTLY MISSING.”

“Then,” she looked in the dust and saw tiny footprints leading toward the kitchen, and realizing the ‘tracks’ she’d seen were more in line with these little shoes Papyrus seemed to be wearing, “who is Undyne?”

The tiny bone pile smiled up at her, “UNDYNE IS MY MENTOR AND CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD. SHE’S GOING TO TELL THE KING YOU’RE HERE, BUT I THINK MAYBE WE SHOULD GO SEE HIM OURSELVES SINCE YOU’RE THE NEW OWNER. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MEET YOUR NEW HOUSEMATES ON THE FIRST DAY SO YOU CAN START THE PROCESS OF FRIENDSHIP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

“As,” Rachel swallowed to clear her throat of dryness from her growing unease, “as nice as that sounds, Papyrus, I…I’m kind of overwhelmed? Right now? Since I didn’t realize tiny people or monsters or whatever are a real thing until I met you?”

“OH DEAR!” his expression turned worried (how? He’s made of bone!) and Papyrus’ tiny gloved hand gave a pat to her large one, “THEN GO BACK TO SLEEP! YOU WILL FEEL BETTER IN THE MORNING AND WE WILL DISCUSS THINGS THEN. I WILL GUARD YOU PERSONALLY AND ENSURE UNDYNE DOES NOT DISTURB YOU WHEN SHE COMES BACK.”

Nodding, she slid back inside and zipped the tent back up…but stopped just before the end, leaving enough room that if Papyrus wished to enter, he could. “Um…thanks, Papyrus. Goodnight.”

“GOODNIGHT, MISS RACHEL! AND SWEET DREAMS!” he sounded so cheery.

Rachel went to sleep hoping that she wasn’t going mad.

The morning sunlight filtered in through the boarded and broken windows. Rachel whined as it hit her face, and woke up coughing from the mucus that had collected due to the massive amounts of dust. Did she really encounter a skeleton last night? No, no that couldn’t…..well?

She unzipped her tent, and as she was doing so heard that happy voice from last night, “GOOD MORNING, MISS RACHEL!”

He was real. Rachel saw Papyrus standing by her tent, his skull graced with an adorably eager smile. “Oh wow. You weren’t a dream.”

“NO, THOUGH I MIGHT BE DREAMY AND HANDSOME, I AM MOST CERTAINLY REAL,” he watched as she exited her tent. “AND I INFORMED UNDYNE OF YOUR STATE, SO SHE ALLOWED ME TO ESCORT YOU ONCE YOU ARE PRESENTABLE.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, same clothes as yesterday and uncombed hair,” she dug in her bag and brought out a change of clothes and a brush. “Okay. Is there any way you could cover your….sockets? or something?”

“OF COURSE!” Papyrus put his hands over his eyes, and it worked since those red gloves he wore were made like mittens. “JUST INFORM ME WHEN I CAN SEE AGAIN.”

Smiling, Rachel got dressed. Yeah, he might be a hallucination from stress, or toxic dust or something, but….he was a harmless little guy so far. And so perky!

She wiggled into a white t-shirt and some fresh grey sweatpants that cut off at her calf, then said softly, “You can look now, Papy.”

He gasped and moved his hands to his cheek bones, “WE’RE ALREADY AT NICKNAME STATUS?! OH HUMAN RACHEL, YOU ARE SO KIND! I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO GIVE YOU PUZZLES!” There were sparkles of orange light in his sockets, and Rachel was mesmerized.

“Y-yeah, um….you’re sparkling right now. What’s that about?”

He clapped his hands together once and proceeded to talk as Rachel combed her hair out, “WE MONSTERS ARE MADE OF MAGIC! THERE ISN’T MUCH MATTER TO US, WHICH IS WHY WE’RE SO TINY AND ADORABLE. IF NOT FOR MAGIC, MY BONES WOULD ALL FALL APART AND SCATTER, AND…I DO NOT BELIEVE WE’D BE SPEAKING RIGHT NOW, IN FACT.”

Rachel nodded. Okay, magic. Sure, let’s go with that. “So where does magic come from? How come I haven’t heard of it before?”

Papyrus thought for a moment before smiling, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT CAME FROM TO BEGIN WITH, BUT ALL MONSTERS’ MAGIC COMES FROM THEIR SOULS. HUMAN SOULS ARE SO FULL OF DETERMINATION THAT THERE’S NO ROOM FOR MAGIC, SO OF COURSE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OR SEEN ANY YOURSELF.” He began walking toward the main hall, “COME NOW, I’M SURE THE KING WILL BE ABLE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS BETTER THAN I CAN.”

Rachel, still half believing this is some kind of hallucination, followed Papyrus as he walked out of the living room and across the hallway into the kitchen.


End file.
